Books like The Critic

This second novel of six in Peter May’s “Enzo Files” finds Enzo now tasked with a cold case that centres around the wine country two hours south of his home in France. Missing people are showing up years later ‘preserved’ in wine, but also displayed by the killer in a signature pose. Enzo is tasked with finding the murderer, and it is not going to be easy.Once again, Enzo calls on help from Nicole, his student and computer expert. One of the victims had a daughter, Michelle, who has mixed feelings about helping, but has a ‘thing’ about older men – in this case, Enzo. Charlotte also shows up to help and is not thrilled with Michelle’s presence. Enzo’s daughter Sophie and her boyfriend Bertrand also come to see if they can help – and Sophie isn’t thrilled about Michelle either. Enzo is being Enzo: he drinks too much, is almost killed and then later on drinks too much and is almost killed again. The man never learns. He is also on the verge of succumbing to Michelle’s charms with the excuse that Charlotte won’t commit to a relationship with him. Oh my.So it’s probably obvious that Enzo is self-indulgently going through a mid-century++ crisis and I expect that will continue through the series. Since I am still a big fan of Peter May’s stories, the pacing, and the scenic tours his writing takes us on, I have chosen to ignore the parts where Enzo acts the fool. He is still a brilliant forensic investigator which adds a bit of balance - or is it ballast?The Chateaux that are described are amazing – so much history comes through in this story via family’s ancestries and their centuries of wine-making. I had no idea that making wine commercially is such an elaborate process. I also didn’t realize how powerful a wine critic can be – to the extent that he could, should he choose to, bankrupt a wine-making family and/or corporate entity with a bad review.Since the mysteries are tied in so heavily to various aspects of the wine-making process, I found myself paying very close attention. Not that I could begin to emulate the process even if someone handed me a fully-functioning winery, but I liked learning about it. It is also interesting how cut-throat it can be – how certain wine makers historically used their advantageous location to block other wine makers’ access to exports, and how that blocking continues centuries later - was just one of several stories I found fascinating.I also found it interesting that what almost all of North America calls an "entrée" is actually an appetizer (entry to the main meal) in most of Europe. How the word came to mean the main dish itself in North America is a mystery.Enzo does solve the mysteries of the missing and murdered people. However, whoever had tried to kill him in this story was not part of those cold cases he solved at all. We are left with a cliff-hanger in that respect, and it is a good thing that my reading buddy and I are continuing on with this series so we can find out who it is and what this would-be killer's motives are.